In 1628, William Harvey discovered that blood circulates throughout the entire body. The conventional wisdom of his day was that the liver was responsible for converting food into blood. The body then was able to consume the blood. Harvey believed that direct observation essential in reaching conclusions. He recorded his observations when he felt that he had proven his findings. He was created with finding what we refer to today as the scientific method.
Harvey observed through the dissection of cadavers that the heart pumped the blood out in one direction. He determined this by observing the one way nature of the heart valves.
Harvey concluded that the blood was pumped, by the heart, around to the different body parts and returned to the heart in a closed circulatory system. Although Harvey correctly observed the closed system of the blood circulatory system with the heart serving as a pump he missed the mark as to the function of the liver. Even with the emergence of the scientific method, medicine is in a very primitive state. Physicians had little understanding of physiology or diseases processes and they had few effective methods of treatment. Bloodletting was still a common practice until William Harvey disproved the basis of the practice in 1628, and with the introduction of the scientific method eventually proved that it was a completely ineffective treatment. Additionally, it was believed that including blood there were four different fluids in the body. A person’s illness was also believed to be due to the body containing too much of one fluid. However, during this period, a more scientific approach was beginning to be implemented by doctors who then began to negate traditional ideas (Colonial America).
To put Harvey’s advancements into proper perspective we should examine other forms of medicine being practiced in the 1600’s. Medical practitioners fell into six categories: Medicine Men, Surgeons and barber-surgeons, Apothecaries, Midwives, Clerics, and Ministers.
Medicine Men: The Indian Medicine Man used similar traditional methods as those used by Europeans consisting of herbs and plants. They developed over 170 preparations which was part of the United States pharmacopoeia. 50 such preparations used by the British were developed by American Indians. Quacks, at the time, would travel about sideshows and sell their remedies as “Indian cures” and then leave town with an unsuspecting public duped.
Surgeons and barber-surgeons: Surgeons and barber-surgeons were considered a craft and were regulated. Again their craft were shared by the Europeans. They required a 7 years apprenticeship before one could practice on their own. This was accomplished by observing a practicing surgeon. They received no formal education and yet they were authorized to conduct surgery. Barbers did not just cut hair they could remove teeth, practiced bloodletting, performed amputations, set fractured bones, cut out cancer and tumors, and dress wounds. All of this was accomplished without the use of anesthesia. Surgeries had a 50% mortality rate.
Apothecaries: Apothecaries similar to physicians. They had an apprenticeship of between 4 to 7 years. Again, the trade was learned through hands training and by observation. Physicians would refuse “to dirty their hands” by making medicine. Patients would take the doctor’s prescription to the apothecaries to have filled. Apothecaries would also treat patients on their own accord. Their roles were limited to a few diagnoses. They would look at the patient, take a pulse, make a diagnosis and mix the medicines. Drugs came from England by ship and sometimes did not reach the colonies in time to treat the patient. Apothecary’s methods were less aggressive than physicians and were often trusted more by the colonist as their treatment produced less harm.
Midwives: Midwives were comprised of women who had little or no training in childbirth. They helped pregnant women through the birthing process.
Physicians would be called in only if there was a very difficult birth. In the healthy communities 1 out of 10 children died before reaching the age of 5. In less healthy communities that number increased to 3 out of 10. Skilled Midwives were highly valued by the community but were not respected by the physicians. Only 1 to 1.5 percent of births resulted in the death of the mother. Most midwives having had their own children knew what to expect during the birthing process. Colonists viewed the Physicians as having knowledge but midwives has having experience.
Midwives were also skilled in using the herbal remedies of the time. They relieved discomfort associated with child birth by gather herbs from garden and fields. Butter was used as a lubricant during child birth.
Midwives treatments were not confined to child birth alone. They treated snake bites, upset stomachs, burns, and broken bones. They also took testimony of out of wedlock mothers as to whom the child’s father was. It was though that during the birthing process women would be unable to lie thereby allowing the midwife to ascertain the child father and turn that name over to the magistrate.
Clerics: Clerics were often drawn in to aid the sick because they were cheap or free and had a little education and were trusted by the populace. They did the best they could to help and often believed that illness was punishment from God. If it was God’s doing then look better to treat the ailment than the cleric. It also served as a backup profession in case “God’s work” fell through.
Ministers: Ministers were well prepared to fill in as doctors because they were among the most educated in the community. They also had access to 1 or 2 medicals books which helped them immeasurably in treating their patients.
Although Medicine Men, Surgeons and barber-surgeons, Apothecaries, Midwives, Clerics, and Ministers played important role in treating colonist, Women played a huge role in medicine in this time period. They did all the household chores such as cooking, cleaning and caring for their children. As well women did majority of the farming tasks like feeding the animals, keeping the bee hives and planting crops. Additionally, women knew how to treat their family’s illnesses and had knowledge of medicine to ensure their family’s health. Only wealthy people could afford to go to a doctor at the time, thus, a wife took care of most of the ailments that came about. Overall, women were a large part of maintaining structure and health within their family. Although women were closed to certain jobs such as being a teacher, doctor or lawyer, women were able to be domestic servants, shoemakers, dyers, tailors and midwives (Colonial America).
Women serving as Midwives had essential role in Colonial America. Midwives were held in very high regard in society and were known to be very gentle, nurturing as well as very knowledgeable in medicine. They were older women who had several children of their own. They were apprentice-trained and combined running a household with their practice (Midwifery in the United States). Midwives treated the sick and also knew how to make their own medicines. Antiseptic and cleanliness in general was not well implemented and was thought to be unnecessary when giving birth because the birth process was considered to be a natural process, and the delivery should happen without any medicine or unnatural products (Colonial Midwifery).
Although women were not allowed to take on the roles as doctors due to the fact that doctors were viewed as prominent figures and had a great deal more knowledge about human anatomy than the average person, women were still able to be midwives and have a great deal of responsibility and obtained a lot of knowledge without it being seen as a man’s line of work. Midwives not only aided the process of giving birth, but they also had a great deal of knowledge in other aspects of gynecological problems (Colonial Midwifery). Additionally, men in this time period were not at all eager to be responsible for aiding the birth of children due to the fact that they had little to no knowledge of the process as well as that the idea of birth was more focused toward women. Further, Midwives did not allow male physicians or husbands to be in the “lying-in chamber” or the room where a woman gave birth. Thus, women found one of the only areas of specialty they could monopolize at the time (Midwifery Today).
Further, the fact that midwives had such authority as well as influence within their field caused women such as Anne Hutchinson to branch out from their normal role as a wife, mother and keeper of the household to take on new challenges that women of that time period had previously been prohibited from attempting. Anne Hutchinson is known as one of the most famous midwives of the seventeenth century. She had a great knowledge of medicine in addition to being literate, which was not common for women at that time. Immigrating to Massachusetts Bay Colony in Boston from England in 1634, Hutchinson began preaching new ideals of the Christian Doctrine that gathered many followers including several male leaders. Not long after, however, Hutchinson was banished from the colony because her ideas were very controversial and too liberal for the time (Anne Hutchinson). Thus, Hutchinson was able to use her status as a midwife to cast an influence across a broad audience when most women were not in the same position to do so.
Medicine in colonial America was primitive by our standards today. Most practitioners had little or no formal training. They relied on hands on apprenticeship training and herbal treatments handed down from one generation to another. With bloodletting, baric surgeries with no anesthesia it was amazing the mortality rate was only at 50%. But, the central role which emerges in colonial medicine practitioners were the roles women played as nurturing mothers, and midwives. A ray of hope in this primitive state of medicine was emergence of William Harvey’s scientific method.
The Circulation of the Blood – Two Anatomical Essay with nine letters
By William Harvey, PUBLISHED BY Charles C Thomas, 1958
A History of American Medicine from the Colonial Period to the Twentieth Century
by Luis H. Toledo-Pereyra, Published by The Edwin Mellen Press, 2006
Stanford Hall: Colonial America
http://www.lmsd.org/staff/elemtech/colonial/medicine.htm
Bryant University; Colonial Midwifery
http://web.bryant.edu/~ehu/h364proj/sprg_98/maraglia/mid17.htm
Midwifery Today: The History of Midwifery and Childbirth in America: A Time Line
http://www.midwiferytoday.com/articles/timeline.asp
Parkland school of nurse midwifery: Midwifery in the United States
http://www3.utsouthwestern.edu/midwifery/mdwfhsus.html
Anne Hutchinson http://www.answers.com/topic/anne-hutchinson
